Maybe, we could use a forum dedicated to the current Information Age stuff? Anyhow, I started thinking (uh, oh!), all those folks taking cruise-ship journeys will expect their cells to work enroute, right? Cells can communicate in two ways, as I understand it, anywhere within a certain proximity of a "cell tower", or, everywhere around the face of the Earth, by satellite, that service being uncommon for the "common" person, tell me if I'm wrong. So, folks on cruises must unwittingly be using satellite service provided somehow by the cruise line operators: some kind of interface routing converting the folks' cell data through to satellite, and vice versa. Could this be what is being done? Or, do cells of the common kind of service simply not work at sea (unimaginable!)? Might be called an imponderable. Frank
My daughter went on a cruise and told me to only call her if it was an emergency as the WiFi charges, on the ship, where astronomical!!
My daughter went on an Alaskan Cruise, and sometimes her location showed up as traveling along the Pacific coastline on the way to Alaska, and sometimes, it showed her as being in California. We finally decided that California must be where the headquarters of the cruise line was located. She was able to post pictures to Facebook during the cruise, so they must have had some kind of Internet connection, either through wi-fi, or cellular. The cruise ship also had an onboard webcam, and sometimes, it showed an actual photo of the ocean/land in front of the cruise ship, and sometimes, it didn't show anything. I think that Robin was able to use her iPhone when she was in Afghanistan last year, and she also posted to Facebook . She called me on Mother's Day, and it was an awful connection, but it worked. She said it was hard to make the call; and it was probably expensive for her, too. Although her company might have covered the phone calls she made.
I do know that when some in my family visit Europe or even Mexico, you have to pay extra for some kind of international pkg or it will be very expensive. The extra you pay for the pkg isn't too bad and probably worth doing.
https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1129/~/cellular-phone-service Here's how Carnival Cruises does it. I'm sure most of the other Cruise lines have something like this too.
@Babs Hunt : Thank your for that link! Although the various protocols and references called out, mean little to the layman (me), it does confirm that cells generally work all over the ocean, and that was my question. Freank
You are very welcome @Frank Sanoica. My family and friends call me "Snoop Dog" because any time they have a question, they call me up for the answer. They know if I don't know the answer, I will research until I find it for them and me. Everytime I hear a question I don't know the answer to my inquiring mind grabs hold of that question and won't let go until I find the answer to it. This makes my life interesting and keeps me always learning something new.